The Ichor gleamed in the warm yellow light of the sun. Within the bulging curve of those drops of liquid existed raw possibilities.

After the Skill transformed, Randidly instantly eased up on his mental pressure against Yggdrasil. The flames of Nether Weight flickered and then began to shrink. The emerald leaves of the World Tree shook, almost as though they were heaving a collective sigh of relief. The looming sun began to gradually drift backward. Without the heat lamp baking the environment, the ambient temperature of the surrounding air steadily dropped.

Randidly released an explosive sigh that seemed to last for a full minute. His body was sticky with sweat and some of the Ichor that had burst out of the massive tree in front of him. His eyes observed the emerald Ichor as it seemed to stir on his shin, possessing a base intelligence, and began to flow down his leg and sink into the dirt ground.

A very drained Randidly Ghosthound twisted around and examined the surrounding vegetation to assess damages. Even with the shade cast by Yggdrasil, the ferns here had withered and collapsed into stiff, tan husks. Some of the larger bushers clustered underneath the direct shade of the root archways still retained some of their greenery, but largely the heat had decimated the flora. The area around Yggdrasil had been transformed from a vibrant jungle into a savannah during the dry season.

The greenery thinned further away from the trunk, leaving the vista to be filled with mostly leafless trees and the exposed bones of the World Tree’s root system.

However, now that the heat had returned to more normal levels, the meltwater and ice essence began to flow back through the cracked and dry streambeds. It would take a while for the cooling flows to return to their prior depths, but the land could gradually recover.

Randidly pounded his fist twice against his chest, his eyes weighing the dehydrated land in front of him. Then he reached out and pressed his hand against Yggdrasil’s trunk, feeling the abundant life energy contained within the wood. Pushed to the brink of extinction… but not dead, not yet. As long as one doesn’t die, anything is possible. And also, this new Ichor…

On the exact spots where the Ichor had splashed out of Yggdrasil, all of the dried, remnant plant matter had been mysteriously disintegrated by the concentrated energy in the fluid. But from those small, grassless circles… waves of sprouting grass began to steadily poke out of the ground.

Congratulations! Your Skill Yggdrasil’s Unruly Ichor (M) has grown to Level 320!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Yggdrasil’s Unruly Ichor (M) has grown to Level 352!

As the area around him began to bloom and expand with life once more, Randidly closed his eyes. His senses traced the limits of Yggdrasil. His mind worked slowly, exhausted from applying pressure on so many dimensions for the past several hours. During his circuit, he found dozens and dozens of places where the strain had warped his image. The inviolable image of Yggdrasil was beginning to fray at the edges.

Rather than healing those flaws, Randidly pressed his lips together and enlarged them. Soon, there were hundreds of flaws in the veins and boundaries of Yggdrasil’s roots. And from those small flaws, Yggdrasil’s Unruly Ichor followed its natural impulse to expand and explore. Drops of sizzling emerald liquid chemically overwhelmed any plant matter in the immediate area, but then spurred a wave of growth through the surroundings.

Randidly pressed his eyes closed. The image projection around him faded and he was back in the shaft. He was too tired to think, but still his mind twisted around and conjured Helen’s fragile smile. His heart ached. It didn’t feel like he was doing enough, but he also knew that his image would need time to recover. His mind needed time to recover.

Randidly bit his lip and drew blood. His breathing was very loud in his own ears. But then he shook himself and pulled out his Hierarchy of Burden.

“One step at a time,” Randidly whispered to himself.

*****

“Should we hold a funeral?” Tatiana said quietly to Neveah. Then she reached up and pulled her fur hat more tightly down over her ears. System enhanced Vitality meant that she wouldn’t die, but it did not make the cold pleasant.

Neveah considered Tatiana’s words for several seconds as the two women walked through the pine-scented wood. A shallow dusting of snow lay across the needly boughs and game trail, demonstrating the grip that winter had over most of Expira during the violent Calamity. But despite the rampaging chaos in the outside world, the surroundings were silent.

In the area around Neveah’s cottage, no monsters could survive for long. The Soulbound partner of the Ghosthound was not nearly as flashy as her other half, but all of her images burned with potent Aether. If she was actually required to face the First Calamity, even directly, Tatiana suspected that the other woman would not even break a sweat.

So much power… Tatiana thought somewhat sadly. And because of how overwhelming it is, we must be careful how we use it for Expira’s benefit.

Finally, Neveah shook her head. “Maybe just a small wake for those of us who knew her. But… well. It is a shame not to have a ceremony. Not I blame him, but Randidly won’t be ready to address it. At least not for a while. So perhaps someday, we will need to revisit that grief with him. But since he will consume himself in his next training project for a while…”

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“We both know that there are things that he is very good at, and others that he handles poorly,” Tatiana shook her head and adjusted the grip her mittened hand had on the ax. “You know… I can feel it. Almost constantly. The pain he feels. The sense of responsibility. The self-condemnation. Sometimes… it’s hard to tell whether the feelings are his or mine. And I’ve started typing out messages to him so many times… but when I think about that emptiness that flows through our bond…”

Neveah sighed. “Even I don’t truly understand their connection. It was based on Aether, but since Randidly has become better with Nether, all his connections have deepened in an unpredictable manner. Nether made its home in their shared memories and strengthened the connection further. And considering the way that Helen smothered their connection at the end to keep Randidly from being able to sense what she was experiencing… there might be some aftereffects that take a while to dissipate.”

Both were silent as wind rustled the surrounding pines. An owl poked its head out of a hollow as they passed and then swiftly hid itself. Their feet crunched on the snow and dirt, pressing the fronts and backs of their shoes deeply enough that their white footprints were edged with brown. Neveah pulled out a metal flask, took a swig, then offered it to Tatiana.

Tatiana took two full mouthfuls before she passed it back. Then she wiped her lips on her coat and pointed. “There, how about that one?”

The two women walked up to a massive fir that dominated the top portion of the slope above the path. The pine tree was fat and regal, pushing away all the smaller trees; the fir likely took up a three-meter diameter space and was five meters tall. They circled around the edges, examining its snow-dusted exterior from every angle.

When they met back on the other side, Tatiana nodded. “Yup, this one will do. Just big enough to fit in the City Hall courtyard. Hopefully, a little bit of holiday spirit will boost our morale.”

The lowest branches on the fir were about a meter from the ground, so Tatiana held the ax in one hand and crawled underneath the three. Despite the fact that she didn’t put too many Stat points into Strength, it only took her two hacks with the ax for the tree to buckle and shudder. Right before it collapsed sideways, she placed her hand on the trunk and stored it within her interspatial ring. Then she straightened and brushed fallen needles off her shoulder.

Neveah frowned as she walked forward into the vacated space. “Has Kharon… suffered many casualties in the past month? That morale has been impacted?”

“Nothing serious… which I think is the problem from the perspective of the other Zones,” Tatiana’s expression turned serious. “More than what’s happened to our residents, its how we’ve been treated that is beginning to sour our spirits. Even though the Wandering City always heads toward the thickest of the Calamity fighting… there are undeniably days that we are transitioning between one location and another. A break, while all the other Zones struggle to defend their own boards from the rising tide of monsters…”

Neveah pursed her lips as the two women turned and began to walk back toward her cottage. “Will it mean trouble?”

“Not in the short term,” Tatiana sighed and shivered. “They need us, especially now that Expira has realized that isn’t a time-based Calamity, but one where we need to force our way into one of the breaches to find the source. Unsurprisingly… suddenly there is an extreme dearth of manpower. Donnyton has made too many promises; the other Zones will raise a fuss if they pull back too many of their forces from the outer perimeter.”

“Comparatively… Donnyton’s groups are better trained, but don’t they actually constitute only a small percentage of Expira’s forces?” Neveah asked.

Tatiana snorted. Her breath steamed out of her nose. “You would think. But it’s a reputation thing. Because Donnyton has it, they are reliable… and vulnerable a little bit of snide reputation blackmail. But anyway, that’s a problem for Donny and Mrs. Hamilton. Meanwhile… the Order Ducis is being asked to lead the expedition to cleanse the Calamity, with some assistance. The volunteers mostly come from Franksburg and King Phirun’s forces. And we don’t have much time to hammer out the details; the attacks are getting worse every day.”

Both fell silent at that. Neveah gestured and the two women started their returned journey down the slope and back along the path. The grey clouds continued to linger overhead, fat with precipitation but unwilling to break open. With only a few days left until the month anniversary of the Calamity, the tension across Expira was at an all-time high. In the last several days, both Zone 7 and Zone 1 had experienced some high-profile breaches of their security perimeter.

But even more ominous was the sudden silence from about twenty percent of the known bubble cities in the Wilderness. Kharon tried to swing past as many as it could as they shifted from the various battlefields, but there was simply too much to do.

Admittedly, part of the reason that we are pushing the holiday celebration so forcefully, Tatiana chewed on the inside of her cheek as they walked through the pristine snow-covered wood. Is how many people saw the remnants of that Beijing suburb we visited. Slaughtering the monster horde responsible wasn’t enough. Right now, humanity needs hope.

“And the other Orders?” Neveah asked.”Can’t they help the Order Ducis?”

“They are also under contract to protect various areas,” Tatiana huffed. The two finally rounded a bend in the path and could see the cozy silhouette of Neveah’s cottages. The windows were warm and orange, lit from within by a magical hearth gifted to Neveah by Sydney Harp.

Out in the middle of the clearing below the door to the cottage, Claudette Beigon sat on the snowy ground in only a t-shirt and shorts. She claimed that she needed to take the time to thoroughly experience the image of cold that Expira possessed. Tatiana inwardly admired the woman’s dedication, even as she would never use the cold as a basis for image, not when the training required this sort of practice.

Neveah and Tatiana skirted around Claudette, unwilling to disturb the woman’s practice. But the two were kicking their shoes on Neveah’s steps to dislodge ice when Neveah stiffened.

“Something wrong?” Tatiana asked.

Neveah blinked several times. “...no. But just… very unexpected. Randidly just sent me a message, asking me to arrange a funeral for Helen in the next few days. He will be attending.”

“Huh?” Tatiana said. She turned her attention inward to the connection between them. The bond burned, like a metal bar that had been left out in the sun. But perhaps it was her imagination, but it did seem like the sense of emptiness that howled out from her Skill had begun to wane.